Liquid-Drop Theory of Nuclear Fission
1939Bohr & Wheeler, "The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission" (Physical Review 56, 426-450, 1 September 1939; DOI 10.1103/PhysRev.56.426). The foundational quantitative theory of fission: treats the nucleus as a charged liquid drop, derives the fission barrier and its dependence on nuclear charge and mass, and explains why different isotopes (notably U-235 versus U-238) respond differently to slow and fast neutrons. The most-cited paper in this chain by a wide margin (1,988 OpenAlex citations on 2026-10-18).
Originators
- Niels Bohr
- John Archibald Wheeler
Landmark Paper
Checked 2026-10-18 — interim signal only, see docs/BASIC_ROADMAP.md Phase 10
Connections
No verified edges into the applied tree or elsewhere in Basic yet — never rendered as fabricated, just absent.
Cross-Domain Connections
No verified cross-domain connections indexed for Liquid-Drop Theory of Nuclear Fission yet. Verified links are admitted under FSTP epistemic audit standards.